Anime Exiles

Chapter 2: Undead Tendencies

"AAAAA!" The group cried as they fell down from a portal appearing over the grass ridden ground. Guyver landed on his seat, as did Sazuka and Allenbee, with Ryoko catching Tenchi and floating the two of them to the ground. Vash on the other hand....

"CRAP CRAP CRA....!" Landed face first into the dirt. His body twitched a little then in under a second sprung back up to his feet. "Not a problem. Meant to do that."

"Your nose is bleeding bristle head." Ryoko pointed to the blood pouring out of Vash's nostrils. He immediately grasped his nose with his hands and screamed at the sight of his own blood.

"Yeah he's not too annoying." Guyver said sarcastically, walking past the group and looking at the world in front of him. Various pastures and greenlands stretched as far as the eye could see, along them were rickety crosses, shambled and crumbling. A village with large foreboding walls was within eye sight of the group as Guyver spoke. "Someone want to give me the Tallus?"

"Oh....sure." Allenbee said, handing him the jewel encrusted trinket. It was the size of a small basketball and had a long chain attached to its back. "What are you going to..?"

"I'm going to integrate it with my suit." Guyver placed the Tallus up next to his chest, the suit immediately reacting and pulling the talisman within it. "Hopefully this will allow us to get a better understanding of this thing and therefore our missions."

"By us, you mean the group right?" Sazuka questioned.

"No, I mean me and the suit." Guyver remarked, the Tallus finding its way onto his arm. "Hopefully we'll be done with this stupid propechy bull crap to make it back in time to stop Kronos from coming back to life."

"Split personality disorder much?" Ryoko joked, looking at all the crosses.

"Honestly." Vash took his guns out of their holsters and placed a bullet into each empty chamber. He tried to swamp out the memories brought up by the Time Broker, flushing out the memory of shooting his brother between the eyes after Knives had tried to use the newly made guns to destroy the remaining humans on the planet. Vash had gone against all of Rem's teachings by pulling the trigger on the gun that day, and he swore he would never take another human life after that point. "Let's just hear what this damn mission is already."
"All right. The Tallus is speaking to me." Guyver said, tapping the jewel in his arm with his finger.

"Speaking to you?" Tenchi questioned, walking next to Guyver, studying the trinket. "In your mind?"

"Yes. Its saying that we've arrived on a planet that has a little problem with...." Guyver stopped in mid sentence, bewildered. "Vampires?"

"WHAT?" Allenbee asked, shaking at the possibility that they might encounter monsters. "As in real vampires?"

"What the heck is a vampire?" Vash questioned, scratching his head with one of his guns.

"Well, until hearing it now, vampires were fictional creatures that were between the realm of the living and the dead. They feasted on human blood and could only survive during the night, at least thats what the stories said." Sazuka placed her hand on one of the crosses, causing it to fall apart merely by the touch.

"That makes no sense at all." Ryoko added, also never having heard of vampires. "How can something not be dead and not be alive at the same time."

"There are things far beyond heaven and Earth Mercutio." Tenchi quoted Shakespeare as he scratched the back of his neck. "Although this is definetely strange."

"Listen I think if we're going to be working together we really need to get to know each other better. Soooo the ladies can come over with me and the other two guys can go off somewhere else while I....AAAK!" Vash was interrupted by Sazuka's sword, smacking him upside the head with the blunt side.

"Silence is a virtue. However, your point has merit. If we are to work as a unit, we must know one another's strengths and weaknesses."

"Gee thanks mistress Pain." Vash rubbed the bump on his head caused by Sazuka's sword. "Before we get all lovey dovey, we should get more verification on our mission here. I take it we just have to destroy all the vampires in this place right?"

"I'm not sure." Guyver looked at the Tallus embedded in his arm. "It hasn't really given me any information besides what it already said."

"All should be revealed in time, it would be a good idea to head to the village and find lodgings for the night." Tenchi pointed to the heavily covered village.

"I'll scout ahead." Ryoko blurred out of the sight of the group and appeared over the town, slamming through the roof covering it.

"How does she...?" Allenbee rose an eyebrow, astonished at the teleportation abilities of the demon woman.

"Its just a thing she does. Funny how her and the Ryoko I knew are so similar." Tenchi said, as he began walking toward the village. The rest of the group followed suit, watching one another, wondering what the other universes of existence were like.

"So Sazuka huh?" Vash walked right up next to the sorceress/assasin, looking at her sword.

"Yes?"

"You're an assasin for hire?"

"For all intents and purposes, yes I loan my services to the highest bidder."

"Do you really need the money that badly? I mean considering you're into magic and all, don't you think you could conjure up a few bucks here and there?"

"...." Sazuka was speechless as she was astonished as Vash's point and forwardness. "I have never thought of that, however I don't do what I do for the money."

"Then why do you do it?"

"The fun of it I suppose." Sazuka walked away from Vash toward the village, smiling as she left in stride.

"Oh yeah, that's reeeallll normal." Vash rolled his eyes and followed behind her.

"Ummmmm Guyver?" Allenbee walked up behind the armored figure, poking at his side.

"WHAT?" Guyver yelled out, getting into a fighting stance.

"OH GOD!" Allenbee placed her arms over her hands and knelt down in a defensive position. Guyver, astonished at this, felt bad for having scared this shy girl. He got out of his fighting stance and retracted his blades back into his elbows. He sighed in deeply, realizing that he was obviously not a people person.

"Sorry. Sorry....Allenbee right?" She nodded reluctantly, still crouched down. "Right. Sorry, the suit sort of doesn't have an off switch when it comes to being on the offensive. You wanted to ask me something?"

"Uhhh yeah." She finally regained her composure and got back on her feet. "I mean yes. So with you and the armor. I mean are you the armor?"

"I'm not following." Guyver replied.

"Well I mean are you human underneath all that suit?" Allenbee poked Guyver's chest.

"Heh. Sorry. Guess I come off as kind of a robot under all this armor. Yea, I'm human underneath all of this."

"Bet the suit makes you a lot stronger huh? Sort of reminds me of my Gundam."

"Yes. The suit enhances my strength, speed, and endurance a few hundred times over. I also have these retractable blades on my elbows, sonics enabled into my forehead through the large ball on my forehead." Guyver pointed at the crystal located in the middle of his forehead, right over his eyes. "I have various sensors, a beam cannon built into my chest, and mechanical integration capabilities. I think I may actually have more abilities in the suit that I don't even know about yet."

"Wow." Allenbee proclaimed, marvelling at the Guyver armor. "But you can, I mean turn back right? Would you mind changing back to maybe put the villagers at ease when we go into the town?"

"Uhhhhh..." Guyver hesitated. "Maybe later, we could be walking straight into a trap after all."

"Guess you're right." Allenbee said, the two of them continuing to walk toward the village.

"How about you? I mean I find it kind of odd that a regular fighter such as yourself has been chosen to be part of a group made up of a prince, a gun slinger, a demon, a sorceress, and an alien armor clad stiff such as myself."

"Normal fighter? I was considered one of the best fighters on my planet. Sure being normal and all may not be the best thing to be in this group, but I still have this." Opening up the long leather jacket, she pointed at the skin tight black suit underneath. "This little baby allows me to create energy constructs in the form of various weapons. Swords, rifles, blunt instruments, the works. It was created for the gundam fighters to practice with outside of the gundam itself."

"That answers my question." Guyver smiled underneath the armor. "We're getting close to the village now, better get ready for anything."

"Oh come on. Its day time, whats the worst that could..." Right as Allenbee said this, a large cannon was fired in their direction. Heading straight for her, she was unable to move as terror held her. A split second before she was hit, Guyver leaped in front of her, shielding her from the blast. "OH MY GOD GUYVER!"

"I'm...." Guyver let the smoke clear from his body and made sure Allenbee was fine. "I'm fine. The armor's really resilient, no worries."

"We're under attack!" Sazuka pulled out her sword and began chanting.

"NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO BE CHANTING!" Vash, with lightning speed, reached for his guns and began firing in the direction on the cannons. The operators of the cannons became scared by Vash's near hits and ran from their posts.

"Paguwa Sunfa. Paguwa Sunfa. Paguwa Sunfa." Sazuka, unaffected by the various explosions, continued to chant.

"God, Ryoko went into the village. We've got to get in there." Tenchi yelled out dodging the various explosions, light wings bursting in front of him then passing through him. As they passed through his royal clothes changed into armor made up entirely of Jurain material. Wrapped in plant, a large sword appeared and grew in Tenchi's hand.

"Wow. Wish I could do stuff like that. Oh wait, I sorta can." Allenbee then proceeded to create a large pistol in one hand and an equally large shield in the other. The cannon bursts bounced off the shield as Allenbee returned fire.

"PAGUWA SUNFAAA!" Sazuka screamed as a large wall formed around the group, deflecting the cannons in various directions due to her magic.

"Wow, magic....its whats for dinner." Vash said with a large smile, putting his hand on the wall, tapping it with his fingers to see if it would hold. "How long does this last exactly?"

"As long as I don't lose my concentration, I can hold out for a couple of hours." Sazuka continued chanting, holding up the wall.

"We have one of our teammates in mortal danger, we don't have a couple of hours. Open up a hole at the top Sazuka." Guyver pointed up as Sazuka nodded in agreement. A large hole opened at the top of the magical barrier. Guyver lept hundreds of feet into the air through the hole, opening up his chest blaster and firing various shots into each cannon location.

"Guess he's the designated leader of the team huh?" Vash smiled and crossed his arms.

"I wouldn't go that far. I am after all a prince, it is only natural that I should lead this team. I'll go and rescue Ryoko if that's all right with everyone." With that, large light wings sprung out of his back. The wings flapped with light speed, allowing him to fly through the hole with his sword in tow.

"Wow, his personality changed all of a sudden." Allenbee noted.

"Yea, very prince like. For a second there I thought he would be the only prince ever to not be a stuck up little kid, but then again, live and learn. You mind dropping this now Sazuka? I think we can all handle the outside now that the village's arsenal is taken care of." Vash tapped the side of the wall with his guns. Sazuka stopped concentrating, causing the magical barrier to fall. The remaining group ran toward the village, seeing neither Guyvr nor Tenchi on the outskirts of the village.

"It would appear that this village is heavily fortified both in artilery and structure. This door is solid steel, there is no telling how many feet thick it is." Sazuka looked at the walls surrounding the village, finding no way to breech them.

"Can you whip us up a spell or something to break through? Y'know change the steel to jelly?" Vash asked.

"It doesn't work that way."

"Fine but while we're out here, Guyver and Tenchi are in there by bursting through the roof of the damn place."

"Hope you guys don't chit chat this much all the time." Guyver's voice lept from behind the doors, loud enough for all of them to hear despite the thickness of the walls. The doors themselves began to crack and crumble as Guyver ripped them off as if they were pieces of paper in a rainstorm. "Haven't been able to find Ryoko from what I've seen of this place. The kid burst in through the roof of the village right as I heard you guys outside."

"I am the prince of Jurai, despite my being a 'kid'." Tenchi scowled at Guyver, his light wings diminishing into his back. "A certain level of respect should be shown. Besides, we don't know how old you are under that armor now do we?"

"Keep pushing kid." Guyver snarled, walking straight up to the young prince. "Two to one says my suit can beat your little wings and sword any day of the week."

"You would be mistaken then." Tenchi said, reaching for his sword.

"Why don't the two of you cease your immature masculinity struggles and focus on the task at hand. I'm sure demon woman Ryoko would be more than happy to not be killed in this back water world." Sazuka said, putting herself inbetween the two arguing teammates. "Anyway, were the two of you to so much as lift a hand against one another, I would be forced to take drastic action and give you each a sound thrashing."

Both Guyver and Tenchi were astonished at Sazuka's forwardness as both Allenbee and Vash smiled behind her.

"Now let us begin the search." Sazuka walked past them into the village. Vash and Allenbee followed her, both Guyver and Tenchi too shocked to move.

"Can someone say 'Whipped'?" Vash smiled, laughing hysterically.

"Never going to live this one down." Guyver said outloud following the rest of the group.

"Indeed." Tenchi replied, walking fast behind. The group looked upon the village, which was as decrepit and dark as the crosses that laid outside it. The dwellings were all empty, a ghost town if nothing else.

"Not too creepy right?" Allenbee passed her hands over the sides of the houses. As she reached the side window of a beaten down yellow house, she noticed something strewn all over its shudders. The wet substance caked on her fingers and caused her to recoil. "What is this? Wet paint."

"Yes." Laughed a voice in the distance. "Human paint."

"FREEZE!" Huge lights burst from Guyver's eyes, lighting up the figure. His clothes were torn and tattered, his skin seeming unusually pale. The figure placed his hands over his eyes and cringed back.

"Wow, Swiss army man is fully loaded huh?" Vash said, whipping out his guns and aiming them at the pale figure.

"Never seen anyone make their way past our defenses, especially not a bunch of humans." The figure said, revealing a pair of fangs behind his dark grey lips. "But there's always a first. Welcome to Vamp city. You won't be living long, we already have your friend all tied up and...."

Right as the vampire said this, a large explosion decimated a house in front of the group. Various figures were flung in front of them, many of them missing body parts. Fire rose up from underneath the ground as Ryoko burst from the ground.

"RRAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Ryoko flew up from the hell on earth that she had caused, two men in each of her hands. The pale men struggled, trying to bite and claw at Ryoko as she cracked their necks under her strength.

"HOLY CHRIST!" Allenbee cried out as she saw the carnage Ryoko was causing. "And here we thought she had been captured or something."

"God." Tenchi smiled to himself, stroking his chin. "I cannot believe how similar my Ryoko is to this one."

"Oh...Oh....God...." The figure cowered as he watched his fellow vampires crawling on the ground without their appendages, blood leaking out of them rapdily.

"ANOTHER ONE HUH?" Ryoko cried out, teleporting out of sight and right in front of the cowering vampire. "Well you get the same."

"AAAAAAA!" The vampire tried to run in the opposite direction, but Ryoko was able to latch onto his shirt and bring him in right in front of the demon woman's hand.

"Shhhh baby. This'll be quick." Ryoko whispered into his ear as energy formed into her palm and shot through his upper torso, causing it to collapse and fly into the wind. "Or not."

"AAAAKKKKK!" What remained of the vampire's upper torso hit into his legs and fell to the ground.

"So yeah, thanks for the rescue." Ryoko said sarcastically to the group, shooting each one of the lying vampires with enery, causing them to turn into dust. She left the vampire the group first encountered in his state and kneeled next to him. "Gonna tell us what we want to know there legless?"

"She is one scary customer ain't she?" Vash looked at the dust swirling around them that used to be the inhabitants of the vampire city.

"God this is horrible. I may be undead but this still hurts like hell." The legless, stomachless vampire tried unsuccesfully to stand himself up on his hands. "You won't make it out of here...."

"Yeah Yeah. Tell us the situation on this world and I'll let you go stumpless." Ryoko picked up the vampire by his throat and lifted him up to her eyes. "Where are all the regular people?"

"Regular people? You're kidding." The vampire smiled, licking his lips. "Every 'regular' person is either locked up in a cell to be bled for our survival or wander the earth like the nomadic savages they are."

"What? You're telling me that vampires rule the....?" Allenbee stopped in mid sentence as thousands of figures shambled toward the group from various dwellings.

"This is our city, humans, and your resting place." The legless vampire smiled as thousands of vampires drew closer to the group.

"Looks like we have a little problem here guys. Guess things can't get any worse huh?" Vash said edging back.

"No, things just got a lot worse." Guyver eyed the Tallus, stepping back as the vampires moved closer and closer, fangs shining in the darkness. "I found out what our mission is. We have to let the vampires win."

End Chapter 2